I know I am not the only person that gets phone calls/emails with these questions. I am writing this to let businesses know a few things.

Your Website Can Be A Huge Marketing Tool and Source of Revenue

If your website is done right a website can help a business increase both its visibility online and offline and it can bring in a lot more business.

The fact that I understand that marketing plans need to be made, that research needs to be done and that my company offers obvious results means that what I offer is worth way more than $1,000. When I had NO MONEY I paid more than $1,000 to get my own website and marketing going!

FYI, $1,000 wouldn’t cover the SEO part.

The sad thing is that I hear the same reasons why I should cut a deal over and over:

• “We are a startup company” – Well, than you should have start up funds for the best form of advertising in this decade – a website!
• “We have been hit hard by the economy” – We all have. However, I will say that my industry is doing quite well in this economy because what we know and do works – therefore we deserve to be paid well!
• “My CEO/Partners don’t think we should have to spend a lot of money on another site. We just spent $3,000 3 years ago!” – Well, here is what I recommend to everyone- You need to take a portion of your money each month and save it for future websites! With all of the constant changes on the web your website will most likely need to be updated in some shape or form in 2 years anyway. You pay for different newspaper ads and you update computers all the time. Why would you not want to update the most important form of advertising you have??? Save some money and know that you will need another website one day!
• “Our business is doing fine without a website! We just thought we would put one up, but it isn’t crucial for our success!” – OK, well maybe that is so, but I always have the same question…How much more business do you think you could have if you had a website? I then ask them when they are looking for a service how do they do it? Answer is always the Internet and my point is made.

FYI- Reputable Web/SEO/Internet Marketing companies deserve to be paid well because we make dramatic differences for businesses!

When people ask me if they can pay me later or barter or give me an XBOX in exchange I have a few answers for them:

• I have worked my butt off and continue to work my butt off to offer better services than my competitors. I deserve to be paid now!
• I don’t go to Walgreens and ask to barter for prescriptions for my kids! I don’t ask the A/C guy to barter for like food or something? I just wouldn’t do that. the question I have is you are on your smartphone and computer all day- you live on the web and you know how important it is! Why do you think my services don’t deserve actual money?
• I have 3 XBOX 360’s and two of the original. I need this thing called “money” to feed my children and pay bills!

Advice to Small to Medium Businesses – For When You Contact A Web/SEO Company

I wouldn’t come into your business and tell you that the services you offer do not deserve to be paid for. If I did you would pretty much lose respect for me right off the bat. I don’t think you would like it if I expected you to take an hour and try to explain to me why your services deserved to be paid for.

I don’t think you would want to work with me if I expected meetings, conferences calls or 10 book-like emails to be answered before I made a decision on whether to work with you are or not. WHY would I expect you to lose 6-7 hours of time – that is, at a minimum, a $1,000 loss right there!

Now take the above paragraph and switch it around to you talking to a Web/SEO Company! The same applies.

This is an irritated rant by Melissa – SEO Aware

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